When You've Spent 20 Years 'Prepping' For Something Like This
Last year, for our ‘Doomsday Diet’ podcast episode we spoke to Sharon Kuhlman - an end-of-the-world ‘prepper’ in Texas. We kind of took the piss about what the healthiest foods would be to take into a bunker. That was then.
To see how on earth she feels at the moment - when having a bunker stocked full of supplies doesn’t seem so whacky - and what advice she has for the rest of us, Tim Samuels has been chatting to Sharon again.
Watch their interview >>
“On an emotional level, you’ve been preparing for, I don’t know, a number of years, I imagine, for something which now feels more possible than probably any point in recent times.”
Sharon Kuhlman, on first glance, is an unassuming figure - shoulder-length brown hair, a face that crinkles into a beaming smile. It’s hard to imagine that she’s also what is more widely known as a prepper - a community of people who prepare for all possible ‘doomsday’ emergencies.
Sharon knows that preppers have often been mocked, the butt of jokes for many years. Yet as she notes, we are now in a situation that preppers were once made fun of for predicting. Her normal appearance is an important reminder that behind these jokes, preppers are human beings, not a paranoid caricature.
Sharon in her store, The Bunker (credit: Community Impact Newspaper)
“I knew where this was gonna go”
Even still, surely Sharon must be feeling a little bit vindicated at the minute?
“I’m not here to judge anybody as to what they have, what they don’t have. That’s not what this is about. It’s like, how can I help you? Where are you at? Where’s your mind at? What is it that you feel you need?”
Sharon runs the Bunker in Leander, Texas - an online store providing aid and supplies to the prepping community and beyond. In light of the recent crisis, her goal has been to try and stay one day ahead of her customers. As a small business, it’s a necessary survival instinct.
“We constantly reassess every morning. What are people needing, what is sold out, what can’t they get their hands on and can I possibly get my hands on some so they can get it.”
Sharon is unsurprised by the response to the current situation, though. “I knew where this was gonna go. It was just so textbook from everything I ever read, of the psychology of how people react.”
As a prepper, Sharon feels ready, not just in terms of physical stock but mentally, too. “We just think a little differently”, she says, simply. “Some people need to see something to believe it and I think that the mentality with preppers is that we recognise that we don’t have to see something to believe it.”
“After 9/11… I felt kind of vulnerable”
Sharon first got involved with the prepping community in the aftermath of 9/11 - a time which proved a test of emotional endurance for Sharon, as she struggled to process what had just happened. “I was worried that things wouldn’t maybe always be the way they had been”.
“I’m not someone who likes to rely on someone else to get it done,” she explains. “I kind of felt vulnerable and I wasn’t super comfortable with that.”
Over the years, Sharon has honed her prepping skills, not just for the survival of her own family, but for her customers and the wider community, too. In recent weeks, one way she has achieved this has been through people-watching in her local Costo.
“You would go into the store and immediately feel kind of anxious and that’s because everyone in the store was feeling that way.” It’s proven a highly effective way of predicting customer demand. “It was interesting to see how people were reacting and what they were purchasing.”
Read Sharon’s 9 Rules On What To Take Into a Bunker
“There’s always going to be something you didn’t think about”
So why the panic? It might seem like an obvious question but Sharon thinks the problem has always been there. “I think what is evident right now is that a lot of people don’t actually eat at home”, Sharon reflects. The demands of modern life, busy schedules and late nights at the office have created a lot of unhealthy habits around eating. The result? “They don’t realise that their cupboards are always kind of empty.”
This anxiety, she acknowledges, is inevitable. “It’s very, very natural. At the moment, you know, this is something none of us has ever lived through, right?” Even the prepping community are feeling the pressure. “I think it’s stressful no matter what situation you are in”. She agrees that years of preparation still isn’t quite enough for total peace of mind. “There’s always going to be something that you didn’t think about or you didn’t prepare for.”
Nonetheless, Sharon is still grateful to be in her current position, adding “we don’t have the added stress of trying to find items that have sold out or people can’t find.” Though she recognises the increased demand, noting that her own business has been consistently busy, Sharon is firm about the ethics of prepping. “We haven’t strained the system in the last couple of weeks.”
“God forbid anything happened to Netflix”
So just how long could Sharon and her family stay off the grid? Turns out, storing a little bit here and there over the years has paid off, with the family predicting at least six months, if not longer.
And what about the prospect of life in the bunker? Sharon laughs. “I do joke that God forbid anything happened to Netflix or something like that right now because I think everyone is watching movies on Hulu and Netflix.”
It is a surreal and unprecedented time we find ourselves in. With so much doom and gloom, it’s inevitable that some will sensationalise coronavirus as the end of the world. Sharon disagrees, though. “I personally don’t think that”. She pauses and with a shrug of her shoulders says, “and if I did, would anyone listen to me anyway?”
What is clear from how Sharon speaks is that prepping is not just about the individual, it’s about complete accessibility in times of need, of sharing resources with your community. As Sharon says, “we need to come together ready to help everyone that has a compromised immune system so that they don’t get sick.” And ultimately, preppers are no more knowledgable about the situation than the majority of society - we truly are all in this together. “I’ve never been faced with a pandemic. So everything is new and I may be more prepared than the average person but it doesn’t mean… I have any real experience with it so I have to figure it out.”
Feature by Tess Davidson.
>> Listen to the ‘Doomsday Diet’ episode with Sharon
Read Sharon’s tips on what to take into a bunker - MREs are all the rage
